Zen & Now

I just finished up the book Zen and Now: On the Trail of Robert Pirsig and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Mark Richardson. It's a good read. In it Richardson follows the route Pirsig took in 1968 when he rode his motorcycle from Minnesota to California. The book describes both Richardson's journey on his Suzuki dual purpose bike and many of the personal details of Pirsig's life, both past and present.

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance came out in the 70's and has sold millions of copies. My brother John had a paperback copy that I tried working my way through shortly after the book came out but after about 50-60 pages, I couldn't see what all the fuss was about and bailed out of it. I picked it up about ten years later and made it to about the same point and gave up again. I'm an avid reader, this book makes over 40 this year, and I've struggled through some real turds over the years but just couldn't see the need to beat myself up with Zen and the Art. In fact, Richardson didn't make it through the book until his third try. After reading Zen and Now, I can see now why I never made it through Pirsig's book. First of all, Pirsig is a nut job - a tortured genius who has been institutionalized (complete with electroshock therapy, I might add) and was looking for something else in the book. The motorcycle was merely a metaphor. And his dealings with life and the interaction with his son who rides along with him on the trip is not very Zen like. Now that Richardson has explained what was going on, I can finally write Zen and the Art off my list of books that I need to read. Actually, I don't have a list - makes it easier still.

However, I like a good travelogue, I like motorcycles and I'm becoming more interested in the Zen approach to life, so Zen and Now was a good one. While never having traveled to California, I have been to several of the places mentioned in the book. I crossed Beartooth Pass in a borrowed motorhome after attending a World Superbike race in Brainerd, Minn. and I climbed the road to Lolo Pass on my bicycle, so having the shared experience made things more interesting, as well as bringing back some good memories. Richardson passes along the Avenue of the Giants on his way to San Francisco, which is someplace I hope to visit someday. As a side note, I just received some travel brochures in the mail from California. Hopefully I can make that trip sooner, rather than later.

Now my inner Buddha is telling me to get up off my arse and get busy. It's only 32 degrees outside right now, however. It was 70 yesterday. Global weirding. Never the less, I need to heed the siren call of the projects while pursuing the meaning of life. But as we all well know: "Life is a Twinkie. That'll be five dollars".

Wild Turkeys

While not the best photo quality, we had some turkeys in the back yard this morning again as you can hopefully see. I just happened to notice them yesterday when I went out to go to work. There was frost on the windshield of the truck, so I started the truck to let it warm up, walked out back to feed the cats and get something out of the shop, and when I headed back to get in the truck I noticed them in the back corner of the yard. When they saw me, they crossed the tracks and headed into the woods. I looked for them this morning when I got up but didn't see anything but about an hour later I just happened to look out the back window and there they were. They actually worked their way all the way up to the back door. There's one big tom and an even dozen of his flock. If memory serves, it's legal to hunt them 1/2 mile south from here. The state highway into town is the dividing line. I'm not interested in shooting them and now that I'm a vegan, even less so. It's just cool seeing them around.

More Whining

Photo From Here

Two sidecar racers in the same week. Just gotta love it, even if safety wasn't foremost in thoughts of the promoters or the spectators in this shot. Wasn't in the other one either, now that I think of it, but these were real road races. I built a sidecar for my 900 when I put it together originally, you may recall. The frame still has the lugs used to fasten it on. And I've got an idea for a torsion bar suspension that I think would work rather nicely if I was to build another one. I'll just keep that idea simmering on the back burner for awhile. Maybe when I decide to work on the drafting program I can draw it up. It'd be a good project to learn the drafting program and if I did that, I'd actually be able to build the thing from a print if I ever decided to go through with it. That would certainly speed up production.

Meanwhile, I bought a sandblast cabinet. That should speed things up as well. Shipping was only twenty bucks, so I ordered it, rather than driving the 30 miles to Harbor Freight. I was telling one of the guys I work with about buying it. Come to find out, he's got a similar one and he steered me straight on making a water filter set-up for hooking the shop vac to it. So now I need a plastic bucket and a few other things to get that deal going. I'm looking at buying a drill press for my woodshop next. I also want a sheet metal brake. The college has a nice sheet metal shear but no brake. I need to start looking around for one or see about building one. I found some plans that look pretty nice. Nothing too complicated but it wouldn't be exactly what I'd like to have. What I'd like is a 48" box and pan brake that will bend 12 gauge steel. I doubt if I can find one of those laying around cheap, though.

I want to do a little sandblasting, so even though I bought a sandblasting cabinet, I've got to build something else before I can use that effectively. I want to bend a little sheet metal to patch the Volkswagen, so I need to build a brake. And I still need to do some house cleaning before I've got a spot big enough to put them. I sure could have used that extra year to get ready for retirement. However, I've got a few days off coming up soon at Thanksgiving and a month between semesters. That should help immensely.  Get up every morning early, have my cup of green tea, my whole grain cereal with soy milk, give the Spin to Win project wheel a turn and then get after whatever comes up. There'll be wheels turning come next Spring

Have a good weekend!

Everyone Back to Work Now

From the Post Tribune:

INDIANAPOLIS — Republican Tony Bennett has lost his bid for a second term as Indiana’s schools superintendent to a lifelong educator backed by teachers unhappy with Bennett’s sweeping education overhaul.

So there's some good news from yesterday's election. Perhaps I should contact the Superintendent elect and offer my services. Maybe get busy writing the manifesto. Or maybe it's just time to get back to work.

OK then, lets formulate the plan. No wait. That never works. Something else always comes along to screw up the plan. How 'bout this? I fill in the spaces on the Spin to Win wheel with projects, including a few for the Missus. She spins the wheel and whatever comes up that day, that's what I work on. Probably as good a plan as anything else I've come up with over the years.





Photo From Here

While I'm waiting for Amazon to deliver the game wheel, maybe a little quality time with the VW would be in order. I'm planning on working on the wheels this evening. I'll do some wire brushing and then sandblast the rest. Harbor Freight has a small sandblast cabinet on sale. It's a little small for doing the wheels but would be real handy to have around for a lot of the other projects that are scheduled to be penciled in on the game wheel.  Maybe I need to fetch one of those on home.

Photo From Here

This is the dash from an AC Aceca. AC of course is the same outfit responsible for the Cobra. I've been trying to come up with a dash idea for the VW. The stocker is junk and the Super Beetle dash always looked cheap to me anyway. The regular beetle was just plain sheet metal but looked liked it belonged there.  I'm thinking of something a little more "racecarish", if you will but not sure what. There's a whole lot more to this one here than I would want for the bug, but a flat piece of plywood padded and covered with vinyl would be easy enough. This one actually looks like it's an airplane cockpit when you see the mountains in the background. Some of the old mahogany race boats from the thirties had some cool dashes. Just like the 900 project, I always like to have everything planned out before I start. It's taken me so long to get started on these things you'd have thought I'd have had every detail worked out by now, but alas, such is not the case. I don't want having to do things twice or taking too many steps backwards. Or worse yet, getting it done and thinking: "You had that thing for all those years and that's the best you could come up with?"

So while all of the project details are spinning around in the vast emptiness of my brain, The Traveling Pirate tells me that the Italian classes are on sale. Mamma Mia! What's a boy to do?





Vote!

Photo from here

Cool picture, I'd have to say. Not sure what it is about sidecar racing that gets my heart all aflutter but it sure does.

My cold has about run it's course - still a little cough and sniffles - so the suspense of when I was going to get sick is over at least. The Missus came down with it, of course. She seems to have been hit a lot harder than I was so I spent most of yesterday helping her out doing laundry, etc. I'll be back on the projects pretty soon.

On top of the to-do list today is voting. There's a lot riding on today's outcome, especially issues dealing with education in Indiana. I can't imagine any school teacher not voting for Ritz today, regardless of their normal party alliance. Whatever your political views, I urge you to vote, regardless. We're still fortunate enough to be able to make choices about our leadership. I'm not always happy about the choices we're given but we've got a choice, anyway. So go vote!

Winning Performances

"The Fighting School Teacher"

I worked the corner for Jimmy on Saturday night for his comeback fight. Didn't have to do much. Jimmy hit the guy early in the second round with a short, chopping overhand right and dropped him to one knee. Even though he was up by the count of eight, the referee stopped the contest and it was all over. Jimmy looked real good. His punches were right on target, his timing was good and his defense was excellent. He started landing hard shots towards the end of the first round and it was only a matter of time before he was going to get the guy out. This was supposed to be the last fight but he's got a chance to fight again in about three weeks and make a little money. I'm hoping he stays retired but I can understand him taking the fight. He's already in shape and I'm sure the money would come in handy. He finished on a high note before the home town crowd. It'd like to see him leave it at that.

Your's truly came off the bench to run a 4 miler this morning. Since I've been nursing the cold, I wasn't sure what I was going to do once I got there. It was spitting a little rain when we pulled up but it cleared up about the time the gun went off, so off I went. I walked the first half mile or so to warm up and then I would run about two blocks at a time, walk six, and repeat. I kept my heart rate low and enjoyed being out and being able to complete the four miles after having the grabber earlier this year. Even though I didn't run much, or fast, it was the first running I've done in over two years and it felt good. My time for the four miler was pretty slow. If it wasn't so cloudy they could have used a sundial to time me but that's OK. I wasn't the last one in and even if I would have been, it was still a PR as far as I was concerned.

Pretty much squandered the rest of the day. Showered up, watched the Bears, worked the crossword puzzle, took a little nap and wrote this up. I'll finish the day with a little more football and try to get through a little of the magazine pile. All in all, not a bad way to spend the day.

Hope your weekend was equally productive and let's all have a good week.

Losin' Traction

In my last post I was talking about gaining some momentum, unfortunately, now I'm losing traction. I woke up to a sore throat Wednesday morning and things got progressively worse as the day went by. Today my head is still stuffed up, I've got itchy, watery eyes, slight cough, chills.  You might even say a slight case of the ague. I got a flu shot so I'm hoping whatever this is dies off rather quickly. Jimmy fights Saturday night, so I'll be working his corner and I'm supposed to run a four miler Sunday morning. I hadn't planned on running the whole thing - more of a walk/jog. Now I'm thinking I should jump into the 1.5 mile fun walk they're doing. Might be the best from a health standpoint. Or just tag along and root for the young lady who is riding along with me. I guess getting sick was inevitable. Every year I come down with something in either the fall or the spring. Sometimes both. I've been able to get a lot done lately - kinda wanted to keep that going. Since this is day three, I think the worst of this crap has probably passed and I'll be back on the projects next week.

I might be able to get a little done on the 900 this weekend. Between the projects on the shack and the VW, I've kind of neglected that. I want to get a start on that front end, though. I picked up some paint last week to try out for that project. Maybe I'll try that out this weekend on a piece of scrap aluminum to see what that's going to look like. Nothing better for a compromised bronchial system than a little spray painting, unless it's the smoke from a pile of smoldering leaves.  And I've got a couple of tires to get rid of, don't forget. I could set those on fire and with a little luck I might be able to find some old paint cans and tar paper to throw on the pile as well. No reason everyone in the county can't have a little respiratory distress.

Have a good weekend. If you're any where near me, keep your respirator handy.